Robot vacuum: AI game vs the rest
Four robot vacuum games, one of them made with AI. The AI game looks the best and has the cleverest idea, but it shares the same weakness as the rest.
I played four browser games where you are a robot vacuum. Only one, Sweepy Bot, is confirmed as AI-made: its page says it was directed with AI on MakePlay. The other three are on Yandex Games and CrazyGames, and their pages don’t say whether AI was used.
The short answer: the AI game holds its own. It is the best-looking of the four and has the most interesting idea. But it runs out of new things to do quickly, and that’s a problem it shares with the others.
The line-up
| Game | Made with AI? | Where to play | Best at |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sweepy Bot | Yes | MakePlay | Looks and personality |
| Robovac: Satisfaction Co. | Not stated | CrazyGames | Depth: grows to planet scale |
| Robot Vacuum Cleaner | Not stated | Yandex Games | Easy controls |
| Vacuum.io | Not stated | CrazyGames | Speed |
Where the AI game wins
Sweepy Bot’s 3D home is far more detailed than the others. Robovac’s walls, by comparison, are single flat planes with little detail.
Its best idea is the homeowner, who wanders around and gets in your way. That’s annoying at first, but finding a way to clean around them turns into a small puzzle, and it was my favourite moment across all four games. None of the others has anything like it.
Where it falls short
Mouse control is awkward because it’s easy to click outside the game area. WASD works much better. Apart from the homeowner, the cleaning itself felt much like the Falcon game, and the third level was so similar to the first that I lost interest.
There’s also an odd button that asks the owner out of the house. It removes the most interesting part of the game, so I’d rather it wasn’t there.
Where the rest win
Robot Vacuum Cleaner has the easiest controls: the keys move the robot relative to the screen, so you never steer as if you were the robot. Vacuum.io is the fastest and plays more like an arena game than a cleaning sim.
Robovac: Satisfaction Co. has the most depth. After about three hours I’d found teleporting between rooms and extra upgrade options in fullscreen, and grown my way through two planets. It is the only game I’ve scored so far, at 38 out of 60.
The three portal games all lean hard on ads, from watching an ad for coins to watching a video for more power.
Which should you play?
- For a good-looking game with one clever idea: Sweepy Bot.
- For a couple of hours of discovering how it works: Robovac: Satisfaction Co.
- For relaxed, easy cleaning: Robot Vacuum Cleaner.
- For something quick and competitive: Vacuum.io.
So is the AI-made game worse than the rest? No. It’s the most charming of the four. It just needs more variety between levels, like every game here except Robovac.